And The Rock Cried Out

I've never hidden the fact that Babylon 5 was my favorite science fiction show.  Actually it's my favorite show. Period. I've been a Trekker since I saw The Man Trap on Armed Forces Radio and Television.  Or Afarts as we called it.

Star Trek provided me with a vision of the future that told me I could be anyone I wanted to, that eventually everyone would be equal.  And from my point of view that meant men and women could both be captains or they could be navigators or they could whatever they wanted.  I had to take this on faith because female captains were pretty rare on TOS.  I believe that the first one was Klingon, the rest were women Kirk tried, and many times succeeded, in bedding.  It wasn't until TNG that we learned there had been a female captain of the Enterprise, who dies trying to right a blip in time and her helmsman ends up saving the timeline.  But still, I just knew there would be a time when men and women were equal, unfortunately it isn't likely to be in my lifetime.

Enough about Trek, on to a more realistic version of the future:  Babylon 5.  Way back in the mid-nineties another vision of space appeared on television and Battlestar Galactica should thank its luck stars.  B5 had aliens who didn't always get along with one another and women were considered the exact equal of men and could protect themselves. The special effects were fantastic when you remember that this was a television show that saved them for when they were needed, not as plot filler. B5 had politics galore and most importantly, it showed how easy it was to turn a liberal civilization into a totalitarian society.  For two years the hints were simple and sprinkled on the wind before coming to fruition. B5 was the last, best hope for victory.

While Gene Roddenberry created and produced a great show (thank you Lucille Ball), most of the episodes were pretty much fluff except for The Famous Kiss and The City on the Edge of Forever.  The stories tended towards being lighthearted and playful while touching on a few important themes.  J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 was nothing like that.  Most of the episodes were completely serious interjected with moments (and people thought he would always be Flounder) of humor.  The story arc from first episode to the last was incredibly consistent and from today's perspective, way too prescient.  Take out the space ships and the aliens and you pretty much have the present we live in and the future we're headed for.

At the end of the first season, the President of Earth was killed under what the viewers knew were suspicious circumstance, but looked like a tragic accident to others.  A Narn outpost had been destroyed and the Centauri were solidifying their alliance with the Shadows.  Then things got worse.

The Earth Alliance under President Cheney Clark rounded up people who didn't agree with his decisions, bombed civilians deliberately to get their leaders to surrender, forced television stations off the air until he could get his own mouthpieces to recite the company line while he declared war on former colonies of Earth and B5. In the end Clark was willing to destroy the Earth as his last act before killing himself instead of being captured.

B5 didn't portray humans as the best of the universe, other cultures and characters always had something to offer (such as the (one moment of perfect beauty) and embracing the differences made all of the characters stronger for it,  Even if it took acts of evil to realize their redemption.  Or, as in the video below, revenge. And how sweet it was.
Marva Hicks can certainly belt one out, can't she?  The episode was about different faiths coming aboard the station to have a conference and the music was perfect for the scene and for the moral of the story.  Here is a version of just the lyrics and music.Unlike most shows, B5 credits were always worthy of watching, you never knew what you were going to hear.For those who say that those who participated at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and black sites we don't know about were just doing their jobs and also believe that waterboarding and other forms of torture are okay, there will come a day (hopefully) where somebody, somewhere will stand up and fight for what is right instead of blindly following orders, especially the ones they have qualms about.Otherwise, it really is too late for the pebbles to vote.

That is all.

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There Will Be A Republican President In 2012

And why? Because there are few true Democrats in office and those of us who have regularly voted Democrat are going to vote with our butts. As in not voting, donating or participating in a political process that consistently discriminates against a majority of the population and tells us that it will be for the best to take the least troublesome road.  Taking one for the team.  What a joke.  It's more like spreading your legs and pretending to enjoy being raped.  

Having met Obama when he was at Occidental College, I knew from experience that he was not going to be the best president for the women of the party.  He was insufferably arrogant, had no respect for women and nothing has changed since then.  It was always about him and never about the people who supported him or what they needed.  Talk is cheap and gays, women and other disenfranchised Americans are finally seeing the true man behind the curtain.  He has always been the embodiment of "enough about me, what do you think about me?"

Imitation health care reform is a good case in point.  What kind of "reform" excludes women?  How are women who have jobs that consistently pay them less than men doing the same work with the same education so they are dependent on the crumbs that men leave for them, feed the unwanted children they are forced to have and satisfy their Viagra charged husbands ever going to have equality?

While I am past the age of worrying about getting pregnant, it disturbs me that young women are being forced back into the Donna Reed era.  It boggles my mind that I had sex education classes in the fourth grade in the sixties but today's girls are taught abstinence instead.  I'm willing to bet that none of my classmates in fourth, fifth and sixth grade had unwanted children because we all knew the consequences of sex on the stick figures used in the class.  Birth control was explained to us, in detail, in the seventh grade.  Who knew that schools located on military bases during the cold war would turn out to be so progressive in comparison to today's education system?

When I joined the Army I met women who didn't know that sex was the cause of pregnancy.  IVF hadn't been invented then so there really wasn't any other way but that's beside the point.  High school graduates who didn't have a clue as to how their body worked.  While I may have found it hysterically funny that someone would think that because I was biracial that one breast would give white milk and the other chocolate, I also found it terribly sad.  Granted I was in Alabama and the other girl was from Tennessee, but that is no excuse.

Women are not playthings, we are not baby factories, we are not sex toys, we are equal human beings.  We have thoughts, feelings and dreams just like the boys and men around us and deserve to be treated like the intelligent persons we can be when we are given the same opportunities.  We want to be doctors, lawyers, scientists, astronauts, accountants and parents, not gestational vehicles for men who need pharmaceutical help to recapture the glory days of their youth.  But thanks to the Stupak amendment that is the role young women will be forced to play.

My own attitude toward paying for abortions has always been the same.  Everyone is entitled to one mistake and one that affects the lifetimes of the people involved almost always requires a little outside help.  That being said, while I'm willing to have my tax dollars pay for one abortion, I am not willing for it to be on a repetitive basis.  Sex education and birth control should be one of the requirements for any type of government help.  Then you are on your own.  Except in unusual circumstances such as the life or health of the mother and the viability of the fetus.  Would the fetus be able to survive if the parents are unable to provide for it without government help?  I've worked with developmentally delayed adults and know how devastated and lost they become when their parents die and their siblings move on.

Conservatives always want it both ways.  All children should be born in every circumstance and then no matter how impaired the child is, they are to survive without government help.  Poor women shouldn't have abortions or convenient access to birth control, while at the same time their husbands are getting free samples and subsidized prescriptions for "erectile dysfunction" so they can have sex everyday.  No matter what the consequences.

With the mindset described above it won't be long before spousal rape is a thing of the past, every woman should be providing for her husband's sexual needs whenever he desires.  As women lose control over their own bodies, their lives are sure to follow.  When my ex and I bought a house in 1978 my income wasn't included because I might have a baby and be unable to work, can those days be far behind?

Historically Democrats have been the party of women, but women's votes are no longer treated with respect and since we won't have candidates that represent our views it doesn't really matter who runs the country.  It won't be us or anyone sympathetic to our wishes.

Democrats may have won this battle for false health care reform, but they have lost the war.  Which wouldn't surprise me as being their goal all along.  There are very few other conclusions that can be drawn from their willingness to do nothing that the people who voted them into office have asked for and everything to do with who bankrolled their campaigns.  If Democrats won't represent women when they have a majority in Congress as well as a Democratic president, what good are they?

Any way you look at it, women are going to be worse off in 2012 than they are today and the eighties and nineties really will have been the golden years for women.  The young women of today are in for a rude surprise if they think they can rest on the laurels of those who protested before them.  They've been braless for so long they can't conceive of an age where it was a requirement.  If they aren't willing to fight for their rights why would those of us who blazed the way want to revisit an issue that we thought was resolved, for a generation that takes so many rights for granted that they are willing to stand by and return to second class status?  If Democrats don't start changing their attitude toward women most of us won't support the party in 2012 unless the opposing candidate is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden.  And that should frighten someone.

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And They Call The Left The Nutroots

Yes, Glenn Beck is mad.  As in crazy.  Beck's overly histrionic behavior is deeply indicative of a man with a tenuous hold on reality and in Chinese Medicine he would be diagnosed as shen disturbed.  We use the tongue as a diagnostic tool along with appearance, smell and actions and his tongue has a longitudinal crack down the center and is considered a telltale sign.  It isn't as deep as Marshall Applewhite's but it reveals quite a bit about Beck's personality.  They say the eyes are the window to the soul and Beck's are pretty glassy even without the tears on demand, another sign of mental derangement.  Thinking that he makes sense and has America's best interests at heart is the equivalent of thinking that a spaceship is hiding behind a comet and has come to take you away to a better place.

Speaking of a better place, that would not be Oklahoma.  For a state that is so fond of the only Second Amendment 75 percent of their high school students not only don't know who the first President of the United States was, but only three percent of those surveyed could pass the citizenship test that all those immigrants they love to hate must take to prove they are worthy to become Americans by choice instead of by birth.  Eight years of the No Child Left Behind initiative and these kids would probably be lucky if they could find their state on a map.  Exactly how would the rest of us suffer if the south was to secede?  Other than lowering our national ignorance score to tolerable levels and reducing the public monies that flow into those states and not out of them, how would we know the difference?

If Scalia thinks that current law should favor religion can sharia law be far behind?  Or is that the wrong religion?

Limbaugh wants to return to segregated busing and feels that racism is normal.  All righty then.  The White House can pretend that racism doesn't exist but it doesn't get much more blatant than that.  Actually, segregated busing sounds like a good idea.  Put all the crazies on the bus and drive them to the nearest institution, lock them up and throw away the key.  We wouldn't have to provide healthcare or any other societal benefits they object to and they wouldn't have to pay taxes that they hate.  It's a win win for everyone.

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Common Sense Is A Thing Of The Past

I love when they do studies that reveal information that anyone with a modicum of  common sense could have predicted the outcome.  Politicians have traits that are common in serial killers.  I wish I could say I was surprised, but that would be lying.  Lack of remorse is evident every time they vote against what their constituents want and vote for whatever entity has donated the most money to their campaigns.  When they finally wander back to their districts, usually for reelection purposes, they claim they had to vote the way they did for security reasons or any other excuse they think will fly.

Kouri, who's a vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, has assembled traits such as superficial charm, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse and manipulation of others.

These traits, Kouri points out in his analysis, are common to psychopathic serial killers.
But -- and here's the part that may spark some controversy and defensive discussion -- these traits are also common to American politicians. (Maybe you already suspected.)

Yup. Violent homicide aside, our elected officials often show many of the exact same character traits as criminal nutjobs, who run from police but not for office.

I've noticed.  Ten dollars worth of gas doesn't go very far, which is another reason to sell the car.  People make appointments to see the car and then never show up and they don't call to cancel.  I dragged the kids back from the dog park on Saturday and the person never showed.  The dogs could have continued to have a great time, as it was all they got to do was sit around the apartment all day.  I've dropped the price a $1000 and still no takers.  I can't drop it much more because it won't solve my financial problems and then I would be without a car to boot.  Very frustrating.

In typical Washington fashion they once again rammed through a bill that was supposed to help people but had a somewhat opposite effect in real life.  Those who make a certain amount of money might be able to keep some type of roof over their head, as long as they don't want to eat real food.  Ketchup is a vegetable.  Again.

White guy kills three cops who he thinks are going to take away his guns, just a lone nutjob. Minutemen dressed as cops kill a Hispanic father and 9 year old daughter in their own home, not a hate crime.  White man shoots a doctor in a church, not a crime of terror.  White guys shoots up a church while spouting crap he heard on Limbaugh and Hannity, not a hate crime.  Old white guy shoots a security guard at the Holocaust Museum, it's an isolated incident.  Black guy with strange name kills a recruit and it's a bloody rampage and a "giant step forward for the jihadist movement".  According to World Net Daily here is a partial list of recent church shootings, none of which are considered terrorist acts.  I know it's not new, but can we say "double standard?"

• August 12, 2007: A lone gunman, Eiken Elam Saimon, opened fire in a Missouri Micronesian church, killing a pastor and two other churchgoers.
• May 20, 2007: A standoff between police and a suspect in the shootings of three people in a Moscow, Idaho, Presbyterian Church ended with three dead, including one police officer.
• Although not at a church building, the Oct. 2, 2006, attack in Lancaster County, Pa., by a gunman who killed five girls and then himself at an Amish school targeted a religious site.
• May 21, 2006: Louisiana. Four were killed by a man at Jesus Christ Church.
• Feb. 26, 2006: Michigan. Two people were killed at Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church by a man who reportedly went to the church looking for his girlfriend. He later killed himself.
• April 9, 2005: A 27-year-old airman died after being shot at a church in College Park, Ga., where he had once worked as a security guard.
• March 12, 2005: A man walked into the services of the Living Church of God in Milwaukee and open fired immediately, killing seven people.
• Oct. 5, 2003: A woman opened fire in Turner Monumental AME church in Kirkwood, east of Atlanta, killing the pastor and two others.
• Sept. 16, 1999: Seven young people were killed when a man opened fire during a prayer service for teen-agers at the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas

Someone too dumb to know that if an escaped gorilla was Michelle Obama's ancestor then it was his ancestor also.  At this rate Americans are going to start regarding their Indian and Chinese doctors as more competent than their blond, blue-eyed doctors.  Unless they have a British accent to go with their "normal" looks.

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Stoking The Wingnut Ire And Other Interests

Yippee!  Greasemonkey has finally been updated to work with FF 3.5b4 and a few other extensions I like to use have been updated as well.  I really missed Colorful List View for Google Reader, it makes it much easier on the eyes when you have a 166 feeds.  And now that Google Reader Subscriber Count is working again, I find that I have more readers than a few months ago.  Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.  I may not be one of the big boys in the blogging world but at least I don't feel like I'm yelling into a void.

Folk hero? Umm, no.  He's a cold blooded murderer.  I think I'm safe when a guy is lying on the ground bleeding from a bullet wound to the head.  I wouldn't find it necessary to get another gun a minute or two later and fire five more bullets into him.  But then, I don't scare easily.  And since it's Oklahoma if it had been a black guy who shot and deliberately killed a white thief, he would be in jail and no anonymous donor would have posted bail, as if bail would have been an option.

Box said that another person might have reacted differently, but he asked: "When do you turn off that adrenaline switch? When do you think you're safe? I think that's going to be the ultimate issue."

As much as I dislike the man this is ridiculous.  Obama has a date night on Broadway with the wife and the GOP goes nuts (rapidly becoming their default state) because the country is in economic freefall and Le Prez shouldn't be relaxing.  Meanwhile Bush spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 day in Crawford, several of them while the Gulf Coast was drowning during Katrina, and not a peep was heard.  Two and a half years on vacation in an eight year term is okay but a night on the town is a no no.  And let's not forget that Condi was buying shoes and enjoying a Broadway show while a major city was underwater and the GOP said...nothing.  IOKIYAR applies to more than sex crimes, wow what a concept.

If you are homeless you shouldn't have computer access because you should be focused on getting a job according to a good proportion of the commenters at the WSJ.  Totally missing from these holier than thou people is the fact that most jobs are posted online and that if you submit an application for a job and don't have a home address or phone number that if you have an email address you can be reached for a job interview.  And that out of a 24 hour day only eight to ten hours are good for job hunting and the weekends are useless.  But they must suffer because they are homeless, they shouldn't be watching movies or enjoying music.  Personally, if I was an employer (not that there are many nowadays) I would look for enterprising people like these who are determined to stay connected and have figured out a way to do it without a permanent roof over their heads or a reliable source of electricity.

Since arriving in Reno I sneeze every day, at least twenty times and usually more.  When I first got here I had to take Benadryl constantly but the last week has been a little better.  I'm still sniffly and my eyes itch but my asthma is back under control and I can breathe through my nose most of the time.  Although I'm not the only one suffering I wish I knew what it was I'm allergic to.  Or it could be that my body is reacting to breathing air instead of San Jose smog.  Whatever it is I hope it goes away soon, I've blown thru several boxes of Kleenex  and I haven't had an uninterrupted nights sleep in a long time.  Supposedly the pollen count is on its way down.

The suffering, the trauma. It seems that the Chosen don't like it when they don't get everything they want and the world doesn't bow to their wishes.  Their idea of construction is we take what you had, you go live in a ghetto that we won't let you leave so we can bomb you at will.  When I was growing up I was told you could catch more bees with honey than you could with vinegar, nowadays it's all about killing the bees instead.  And as we are now finding out bees are important to survival, maybe the Palestinians are too.

Do Unto Others

Yesterday the FX channel showed A Few Good Men and while everyone remembers "you can't handle the truth" very few people remember the pressure exerted on Marines to follow orders no matter what or the ending and the judgment rendered against the two Marines.  It seems that back in 1992 following an illegal order was enough to have you kicked out of the military with a dishonorable discharge for conduct unbecoming a Marine.  Just like it was when I joined the Army in 1974.  It's almost funny that the crime took place at Gitmo.

On the charge of Murder, the Members find the defendants Not Guilty.

It's hard to resist the temptation to scream and shout, but they do.

RANDOLPH
(continuing; reading)
On the charge of Conspiracy to Commit Murder, the Members find the defendants Not Guilty.

RANDOLPH looks up. Then reads from the last slip of paper.

RANDOLPH
(continuing)
On the charge of Conduct Unbecoming a United States Marine, the members find the defendants Guilty as Charged.

A little of the energy drains out of the room.

RANDOLPH
(continuing)
The defendants are hereby sentenced by this court to time already served, and are ordered...

RANDOLPH clears his throat.

RANDOLPH
(continuing)
... And are ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the marine corps.
(pause) This Court-Martial is adjourned.

RANDOLPH raps his gavel.

SERGEANT AT ARMS
Ten hut.

All rise.

RANDOLPH's gone.

SERGEANT AT ARMS
(continuing)
Dismissed.

The M.P.'s move to DAWSON and DOWNEY to unlock their handcuffs. KAFFEE is packing up his things, just another day at the office.

DAWSON
Why?

KAFFEE
Harold, I'm sorry.

DAWSON
Why?!

DOWNEY
I don't understand. Colonel Jessep said he ordered the Code Red.

JO
I know, but--
 
DOWNEY
Colonel Jessep said he ordered the Code Red, what did we do wrong?

JO
It's not as simple as--

DOWNEY
What did we do wrong?

DAWSON
We did nothing wrong.

If it wasn't a viable excuse in 1992, it's even less of an excuse when you have a college degree (required to join the CIA) or a medical degree and are supervising torture. Waterboarding two men 266 times and receiving the same answers shows that torture doesn't work.  Common sense dictates that if they haven't given any more information after the first or second time, they aren't going to cough up anything useful on the hundredth time.  By then they know they aren't going to die from simulated drowning and that their captors are depraved idiots following illegal orders.

Why is it considered torture when our troops are subjected to water-boarding but not when we do it to other people?

Interestingly, we weren't nearly as blithe about waterboarding when it happened to our own guys during World War II. Then, we considered it a war crime and a form of torture.

In "Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts," Judge Evan Wallach of the U.S. Court of International Trade has documented the trials in which the United States used evidence of water-boarding as a basis for prosecutions. The article, still in draft form, will be published soon by the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

Among the numerous examples, Wallach cites one involving four Japanese defendants who were tried before a U.S. military commission at Yokohama, Japan, in 1947 for their treatment of American and Allied prisoners. Wallach writes, in the case of United States of America vs. Hideji Nakamura, Yukio Asano, Seitara Hata and Takeo Kita, "water torture was among the acts alleged in the specifications ... and it loomed large in the evidence presented against them."

Hata, the camp doctor, was charged with war crimes stemming from the brutal mistreatment and torture of Morris Killough "by beating and kicking him (and) by fastening him on a stretcher and pouring water up his nostrils." Other American prisoners, including Thomas Armitage, received similar treatment, according to the allegations.

Armitage described his ordeal: "They would lash me to a stretcher then prop me up against a table with my head down. They would then pour about 2 gallons of water from a pitcher into my nose and mouth until I lost consciousness."

Hata was sentenced to 25 years at hard labor, and the other defendants were convicted and given long stints at hard labor as well.

Wallach also found a 1983 case out of San Jacinto County, Texas, in which James Parker, the county sheriff, and three deputies were criminally charged for handcuffing suspects to chairs, draping towels over their faces and pouring water over the towel until a confession was elicited. One victim described the experience this way: "I thought I was going to be strangled to death. ... I couldn't breath."

The sheriff pleaded guilty and his deputies went to trial where they were convicted of civil rights violations. All received long prison sentences. U.S. District Judge James DeAnda told the former sheriff at sentencing, "The operation down there would embarrass the dictator of a country."

Hmm, so we have prosecuted our own law enforcement agencies for performing water torture but the CIA. the doctors and everyone else involved in these heinous acts against people in their custody are not to be punished?  Right now President Obama is no better than President Nixon was when he had Lt. Calley removed from the stockade after a single weekend after being sentenced to hard labor for the rest of his life for killing innocent women and children at My Lai 4.

I love this country but I am not immune to its faults and lately they have been obvious to everyone but us.  Whenever we feel threatened we feel we can use any means necessary to accomplish our goals but we want others to be punished (Mr. President, I'm sure you saw those documents as you studied for that law degree, they were in your college library) for using those same means.  I guess this means that our motto is no longer "Land of the free, home of the brave" it's more along the line of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but do it first."

As John Adams said many years ago, we are a nation of laws.  Mr. Obama it is your job to enforce them.  Otherwise you, and by definition America, are nothing more than an empty suit.

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When Did We Lose Our Ability To Empathize?

What the heck is wrong with people?  Are our math skills so poor that we can't do simple addition and subtraction?  For a supposedly Christian nation we sure are harsh on those who have the least.  A recent Gallup poll finds that even though the economy has tanked, that rental prices have risen as home prices have fallen, that food and medical costs have also risen high enough that families making $50K a year are visiting food banks to supplement their pantry and doing without medical insurance while hoping for the best and yet only 41% of Americans think that the poor are paying their far share of taxes and 16% believe that the poor pay too little.  If you want the poor to pay more taxes, you should let them earn more money.  As Warren Buffet pointed out a few years ago, his secretary and cleaning lady paid a higher tax rate than he did.  In other words, a larger proportion of their income.

In California the minimum wage is $8 an hour.  If your company hasn't forced you to take an unpaid vacation or cut your hours you will gross $320 per week, $1,387 per month and $16,640 per year. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?  Back in the day, the rule was that you were to spend less than one third of your income on lodging so living by yourself is out of the question if you plan on eating.  Rents in Santa Clara for a one bedroom apartment hover between $950 and $1400 a month.  These numbers can be reduced if you are willing to live in a high crime area on the wrong side of town or live so far away from your job that it takes you an hour to get to work.  But what the heck, you're poor and don't deserve to live with the "better" members of society.

Federal and State taxes are taken out before you ever see your check, along with Medicare, State Disability and Social Security taxes, so that $1387 a month is really closer to $1000 which means you compromise and live in a house or apartment with several other people and rent will only cost you $550.  That doesn't include utilities or telephone, be it a land line or cell.  If you don't have a car there are no payments, repairs, registration or insurance to worry about but the bus pass for the bus that doesn't run on weekends or holidays that's a mile from your apartment on one end and a mile to the job on the other is $70 a month.

Now this job obviously doesn't have health insurance and if you are young and never been seriously ill, the premiums can be pretty low but heaven forbid you're over thirty because you are looking at premiums around $250 a month.  I hear tell that you are supposed to buy new clothes occasionally so you had better be a Wal-Mart shopper, but not too often.  No going to the dentist either and if you need glasses they had best be of the birth control variety.  Fortunately they happen to be in style now.

You really shouldn't have pets, hobbies, own a television now that everything is going digital and you can't afford cable or satellite, go to the movies, smoke cigarettes, or enjoy a beer or latte because that money is coming directly out of your food budget since you gross over $1100 a month you aren't eligible for food stamps.  And with the price for a decent loaf of bread coming in at over $3.50 you should be eating rice and beans.  It doesn't matter if you aren't getting proper nutrition and are gaining weight because all you can afford are simple carbohydrates, you're poor and that's all the world owes you.

Now what happens if you stupidly fall in love and get married?  That salary will not support two people but you will finally qualify for food stamps.  According to the traditional view of Christian marriage a man is supposed to support the wife and she is supposed to stay home and take care of the kids you can't afford.  Reliable birth control is out of the question and abortion is a no-no so you better not have sex either.

Unfortunately this recession is hitting all income levels and the ranks of the newly poor are swelling at the same time as all of the safety nets are being eliminated.  For those of us who are either not knowledgeable or have too much knowledge, poverty is our future.  It won't matter how much you have paid into the system over the years, your fellow Americans think you are a loser and abusing the system because they are positive you're lazy.  Not that the job that required a Master's degree when you took it was shipped overseas and the only thing left in your area is working at Wal-Mart and they won't hire you because you're over qualified.  Even though you had six months of savings that have run out and now can't pay your bills, it's all your fault now because you're poor.  You should have planned better and gotten an advanced education.  Oh wait, you did that and have the student loans to prove it.

What the heck is wrong with us that we must make ourselves feel better by demeaning those who can't fight back? The poor pay into the system in many ways (including the regressive sales tax) and then society determines that this isn't enough and that they aren't contributing as much as they should even though it's all they have.  And then have the audacity to say that the poor should work harder and pull themselves up by their bootstraps when all they have are flip-flops.  How messed up is that?

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Union Of The Snake

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much we interfere in other country's dealings that within a short amount of time they revert to their old ways?  We went to war with Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban and to capture Osama bin Laden.  Seven years later and the Taliban are back in power and threatening us without impunity.  And that crap about improving the lives of women?  It was just that.  Crap.  Afghanistan's freely elected President, Hamid Karzai, rushed a bill through Parliament whose only goal was to keep him in office until they have their next election.  Most world leaders wouldn't put pen to paper and legalise the rape of women, restrict their access to courts, and approve child marriage in this day and age but that didn't stop Mr. Karzai.  Oh no, he rushed the bill through without it being read out loud or debated by the Parliament.  And we keep supporting this guy. You know it's bad when Saddam Hussein had more respect for women.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We get the picture, things haven't changed much since the last Depression.  Corporations, banks and Wall Street are the winners and their employees are the losers.  And will stay that way.  In the waiting line. 

For a country that revolves around its citizens buying things we aren't going to last very long if a majority of the people are unemployed and stuck in places that don't have enough jobs for the amount of people who would like one and therefore can't afford to buy anything.  If people can't afford housing, food or clothes, how can they afford a new car or a refrigerator for the house they no longer have?  The recovery needs to start at the bottom, the top has had help for years and look at the mess they made.  Not that they're suffering.  Yet.

This is my issue with working for a corporate employer.  They require that you be at work at a certain time, eat and sleep at a certain time, dress a certain way, behave according to their rules and that if you break them, you can be dismissed.  For complying they promise to pay you a certain wage on a predetermined schedule and years ago they offered benefits such as a steady job, health insurance, vacation and sick pay and a pension after committing a large percentage of your life to the company.

In the eighties they started spending company money to move production to another country to save costs and increase profits.  When they figured out that the people they laid off could no longer afford their products they didn't discipline the people who had exhibited faulty judgment by eliminating the consumer base, they laid off more people in the States and moved production to even poorer countries where they wouldn't have to pay benefits or worry about workplace conditions and could still give the almighty shareholders their precious dividends and executives received bonuses.  Then they set about systematically dismantling the pension and health insurance for the people who had already fulfilled their end of the bargain and worked faithfully for them for years by claiming that they couldn't afford to keep the deals they made with the employees.  And then the Bush administration shifted large sums of money from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to the already unstable stock market.  End result?  The elderly will eat dog food and ketchup or die of starvation or they can hang on until winter when they can freeze to death.  The middle aged live in their cars and earn just enough to eat a mini meal at Mickey D's once a day and the youth wander the streets aimlessly with no hope for the future and see crime as their only way of getting ahead.  I know I'm a cynic but what's next?  Lining the homeless up against a wall and shooting them so the rich aren't offended by all those lazy people?

At one time we were the greatest country in the world and now all we have is faded glory.  The rich don't notice, they are too busy vacationing or buying homes in other countries while ensuring that they pay less and less to the country that made it possible for them to be a success.  Heck, they even adopt kids from poor countries while forgetting about the ones in the land of their birth. The sad part is that those who aren't rich don't mind getting help to cut their own throat because they no longer have the skills to think critically, question authority before it goes too far and are willing to be spoon fed economic pablum by the pundits instead of looking at their own circumstances and seeing how screwed they are.

We may not be watching Rollerball but American Idol, Survivor and Dancing With The Stars make a nice substitute, don't they?

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Infotainment Instead Of News

Well isn't that just awful, the pundits have lost patience with the President.  As if I care what the pundits think.  I remember when they were relatively good (This Week with David Brinkley, Tony Brown's Journal and the good versions of Meet the Press and Face the Nation) and confined to their place voicing opinion, not making it.  I lost all respect for them during the Clinton affair.  They perpetrated and encouraged a witch hunt against a sitting President whose only results were to expose private marital discord to public ridicule and to ensure that when the bumbling idiot that is George W. Bush took over and ran this country into the ground that they could say that the country was tired and that all talk of impeachment was off the table and we must support the President otherwise we were automatically guilty of treason. One must not criticize the President.  Unless he isn't the President that the wingnuts wanted, then all bets are off.

And people wonder why today's youth are so confused and who could blame them?  On the one hand they were taught that it is okay to try to impeach a President for lying about having sex outside his marriage (like that hasn't been done before!) but it isn't okay to impeach a President for lying about nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, allowing an American city to drown on worldwide television, spying on innocent Americans without any oversight from the court system, considered the Constitution as an old piece of paper, destroyed the military and then cut benefits to veterans, gave the orders that caused the deaths of innocent civilians in two countries, let the Grand High Poobah of the Taliban live free after the most traumatic incident this country had seen in a decade (funny how the FBI could find Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols within days but the military and the CIA can't find a 6'5" man on dialysis in a country where we've been for eight years) and I'm supposed to think that pundits opinions are the word from on high?  Oh my, I'm just quaking in my boots.  And what the heck is wrong with a little patience?  Bush got eight years to screw up this country while the press was complicitly quiet and because Obama hasn't fixed everything that the press has just noticed is broken in the last four months while only being in office for two of them, he doesn't know what he's doing?

Maybe the President is combative because the press asks stupid questions.  Repeatedly.  Substance is no longer the press' forte.  If half as much time was spent on researching what the public needs to know as the news spends on letting us know about the lives, loves and tweets of today's entertainment crowd maybe the President and I could take them seriously. 

Our country is in deep doodoo and avoiding the issues is what the press does best and they are at the top of their game.  Unfortunately these guys are so clueless that it probably hasn't occurred to them that if they reported the news in an objective manner that maybe so many papers wouldn't be going out of business for lack of readership.

As Anna Z pointed out so eloquently, why is it that nothing can be done about the AIG bonuses but the government has rules and regulations in place to deal with the last dime of a Medicaid patient because it is considered government money and must be repaid by any means possible?  The rich can commit crimes and escape punishment on a consistent basis but the poor must be stripped of everything, including their dignity.

Not that the press notices these things, that would be too much like doing their jobs and they would rather be voicing their opinions instead of reporting the news.  Bloviating is their specialty which is why they think everybody else does it too.

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Penny Wise And Pound Foolish

Either the fish run out of water or we run out of food.  400,000 of 611,000 acres of farming land lying fallow.  80,000 jobs are expected to be lost this year alone and the harm will continue to spread.  This is going to be a global problem in short order and fun times will not be had by all.  Or even many.

Ah yes, the glories of the American business model.  Form working at Universal Studios where they cut back the secretaries health benefits and overtime to cut costs while having weekly champagne parties for producers and subsidized executive housing loans at less than three percent, nothing much has changed in the work world.  Lay off employess at the bottom, give the people at the top a bonus.  And if they do manage to sell the company, all they've sold is blue sky since the people who did the production work won't be working there to make anything to sell.  And then there won't be any people to buy the products but nobody seems to think that far ahead.  Until it's too late.

Flambeing their own.  I hope crow tastes as bad as it sounds.  When the Republicans get around to blaming themselves for being willing and active participants in the destruction of their party and learn that saying no reflexively is not what the American people want to hear, they might be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become a respectable party again.  That would mean ignoring the Coulters, Malkins and Limbaughs and since hate seems to be more comfortable for them, I don't hold out much hope for change.

Conservatives want the border fence so that illegal immigrants can't sneak in and take jobs nobody else wants.  Meanwhile the border seems to have more serious problems such as kidnappings, home invasions and executions.  So, in typical fashion, Congress is going to hold hearings on the whether we're prepared to defend ourselves if there is even more violence.  Right off hand I would have to say the answer is no as the National Guard and their equipment is off defending other countries on the other side of the world.

Goodbye Mr. Harvey.  While I didn't agree with all your politics you were a bright spot on the Armed Forces Radio when we were stationed in Germany.  For some reason you reminded us of home and between you and Kasey Kasem we listened to the both of you faithfully.  Thank you for helping us not to feel too lonely. Rest in peace, you will be missed.

So which was is it, 2003 or 2005?  The BBC article was a little confusing but research showed it was 2003.  I had front row seats for a Siegfried and Roy performance back in 1987 and I remember thinking "maybe a front row seat isn't the best place to be when you have an elephant on two legs looming over your head."  It was still a great show and it's nice to have them back even if it was for one show only.

I went to get my hair cut yesterday and as I looked for a place to park a guy came out of the barbershop and headed toward his car.  Out of nowhere this woman started to attack him in the middle of the street.  He didn't respond and tried to get into his car.  She wouldn't let him close the door and kept hitting and screaming at him.  I had a front row view because I was waiting for the space.  Another person left the shop and I circled around to get his space after I offered the poor guy my phone so he could call the police.  At no time did this man lift a finger towards this woman who was clearly out of control.

The police arrived in short order and the first thing they did was put the man in cuffs and put him in the back of the cruiser.  Then they talked to the woman, refused to take the statement of the witnesses watching and finally let the guy go after threatening him with arrest if he didn't wait down the block for the bus to pick him up.  Did I mention that the woman was Filipino and the man was black?  I asked the cop when I left and he said it was just a domestic disturbance and no charges would be filed against the woman.  I told him that just because she was ineffectual at that moment didn't mean she didn't need anger management classes and that the second time she had burst into the shop both the patrons and the workers were afraid she had a gun and would use it.  No response.  When I drove off they were impounding the guy's car and flirting with the woman.  As I told them when I passed them the last time was that if it had been the guy hitting the woman, he would have been in jail so fast his head would be spinning.  Which is why this is video is disturbing.  I guess might really does makes right.

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Revisiting The Myth

Social Security is not an "entitlement" program.  Over the course of their working lives people have had millions of dollars taken out of their paychecks and put into a program as insurance for when they got older or became infirm.  Using the word entitlement implies that nobody contributed anything and that they are sponging off the government, which isn't true.  Why is it that the people who have money are so determined to see the teachers, mechanics and bank tellers who served them over the years spend the end of their lives in poverty?  If I hadn't been willing to give up my own life, my mom would be on the street, lonely and forgotten through no fault of her own.  Which is where I will be if this stupidity continues.

I'm 52 and don't have time to make up hundreds of thousands of dollars so I can retire.  By the time mom is gone we will be so deep into this depression that I, along with a good majority of other innocent people, will not be able to survive in the economic conditions of the future.  So much for that Masters and owning my own business.

Social Security is NOT the problem. It isn't even out of money, no matter what the people who don't need to worry about their retirement babble.

We are staring at unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security in the tens of trillions of dollars. Where's that money going to come from? We have to either raise taxes or cut benefits. There are no other options.

Yes, there are. For too long the elite have used the bounty of this country for themselves and it is long past time to share the wealth. We are rapidly becoming a third world country, run by people who have no concept of what it is to struggle to survive. As the economic downturn continues and small businesses start to fall by the wayside along with corporations who gave obscene amounts of money to the people at the top while taking everything from the people on the bottom, the pain will be felt by everyone who isn't at the top.

Food, gas and medicine are out of the price range of a growing section of society. They can't cut back any more as there is nothing left to cut. The poor can't walk to the grocery store because grocery stores aren't located in the poor sections of town. The poor can't take public transportation because it is being slashed in a futile effort to balance budgets that will continue to run a deficit as more people become unemployed and can't contribute to the tax base. The poor can't afford the highly overpriced medicines or the preventative doctor visits to keep them healthy. The poor, as a group, can't do anything to change their situation because they have nothing to change it with. Their children will continue to swell the ranks of the poor because education in their areas has been virtually eliminated and besides they have to scrounge for food. The poor can't get abortions, birth control is nonexistent and the fundamentalists want to keep it that way. That way they can complain about the poor being irresponsible and having too many babies. And prison is not a replacement for a healthy and happy childhood.

The Republican party and the fools who support them are determined to return this country to the days of indentured servitude. They trot out trite statements such as pull yourself up by your bootstraps when not only do the people not have straps, they don't even have boots. If you are born poor or lower middle class the odds are that you will stay that way. The outer fringes of society will be your world and unless the elite who are really the ones enjoying the benefits of entitlement, get off their high horses and walk among the commoners we will end up having a caste system that is more entrenched than India's.

Or a revolution.

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Pictures Worth A 1000 Words

How cute!  Mother Nature strikes again.  Which is why you otter see this picture.  And all this time you thought it was monkey see, monkey do.  Not that using a monkey as an example is the best way to get your point across.  Fortunately the picture isn't a cartoon.

Reader Rick sent me photos from the Australian bush fire, here are three of them from Amy (last name on request only).

Victoria in flames.

Burnt to a crisp.


An innocent life saved.


Heartbroken and homeless.

 

Honestly, what kind of person would do this?  How can anybody live with themselves after knowing that they deliberately caused this type of destruction?

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People Are Weird

How do I get a job working for a company that will secretly pay me an early million dollar bonus for helping them lose money all year long?  Merrill Lynch had to be taken over by Bank of America and the executives were duly rewarded at the American taxpayer's expense.  Must have been nice to know that you can screw up, get rewarded handsomely and still have a job when your company has to be sold due to fiscal mismanagement.

Yes, their image is offensive.  As is their behavior and attitude of entitlement.  No amount of regulation at this point is going to change the fact that they took what they wanted and now that their house of cards has fallen down, they want to be chief architect on the next one.  Probably so that they can make sure to build a jacuzzi on the ground floor.  And a train ride will not make you look like a common man.  Even if it does take eight hours.  We know you have private and corporate jets available, you just don't want to be pilloried for flaunting the wealth.  As soon as the hearings are over, the bankers will return to their indulgences.

Oh yeah, that southern route looks safe.  Not.

For some reason I thought I was fairly liberal, open minded and tolerant.  Then I heard about a paraphilia that involves cannibalism and that put an end to my open mindedness.  And zoophilia?  I'm pretty sure that Lady Heather wouldn't approve.  Leave those animals alone.

"You slice off a piece of somebody and together you fry it and cook it and eat it," she said. "There's a Web site for almost anything."

In 2003, a computer technician advertised on the Internet for a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then consumed. His willing victim agreed to have his penis cut off, which was flambéed and served up to eat together before the victim died, according to the BBC. The courts debated whether the act constituted murder, because the victim had solicited the act.

That was more than I needed to know. Living frugally should not include cleaning your plate.  If your are full, you are full and eating what's left will only make you fat.  Either try cooking less or cook extra and put it away before you make your plate and you can save money and lose weight at the same time.

Better late than never.  And for the people of Washington, DC, it's about flipping time.  They've been the poster child for taxation without representation for far too long.

Should a woman be on the Stimulus Conference Committee?  Well, let's see.  Women are 51% of the population, the are not getting laid off as quickly as the men (the bright side of earning 77% of what a man did), increasingly the head of household, two women were responsible for amending the senate version of the stimulus package...hmm, I don't know. I guess all those old guys who haven't had to look for a job in years might think about provisions that protect women and children, but I doubt it.

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Why, Why, Why?

Unflipping believable.  Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and newspapers have whole sections of them.   With job losses mounting and state budgets collapsing, the moron Clark S. Judge (doesn't he read his own paper or have access to the same data?) lets loose with this brilliant statement. 

The analogy with the Depression is wrong; the current downturn may be all but over; and doing too much, not too little, is the real danger.

Anybody, anybody, who thinks that the financial devastation is almost over is not dealing with a full deck and should go back to whatever cubbyhole they crawled out of until they pick up a little common sense.

I don't care if banks do business with each other, they have been using their depositors money to make money for themselves for years, but I do care whether or not they do business with companies that employ Americans.  If I don't have an income, how are tax cuts going to help me pay my bills, put a roof over my head or food in my stomach?  The Republicans in California are so crazy that they are willing to enact a budget that screws over their own constituents and benefits the rich, liberal Democrats they hate the most just so they can say that they cut taxes.

Why is it ok for banks and Wall Street to get bailed out when it was their greed that helped to cause this mess but it isn't ok to help people like me who are suffering because of their bad judgment?  Why is cutting taxes for those who don't need it more important than rebuilding our infrastructure before it completely falls apart?  Or down?  Why is it so important for Republicans to enlarge the class of people known as poor?  Why is it so difficult for those in Washington to understand that the average Joe (not Joe the Plumber) is hurting mightily and needs help now, as in today, not some mysterious future trickle down effect that isn't going to happen just like the last trickle down effect didn't happen.

Could it be that they consider us serfs, existing only to satisfy their whims and wishes?  Did the election results teach them nothing?  And whining that reporters aren't doing their jobs, how is that news?  They didn't do their job for the last eight years, why start with something so important as the impending financial ruin of our country?

Financial terrorism is what Republicans are practicing.  And getting away with it.

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Reading Is Fundamental

Reading is a hobby of mine.  It has gotten me through some of the worst moments of my life and it was a savior during my childhood.  The library was where I went to escape the world and discover it at the same time.  When I walked into the room at my ten year high school reunion, everyone said "look, it's the girl with the book!"  I'd read so much that I didn't recognize hardly anybody.

I read mostly fiction and what few biographies there were on women, but preferred science fiction from a very early age.  Somehow, I had this stupid belief that the future was going to be better, that we would be living in space and be getting ready to humanly explore outside the solar system and that we would have met or seen evidence of another space faring race by this point in my life.  I had originally planned to spend my fortieth birthday on the moon we had landed on 26 years before.

I totally get why aliens haven't contacted us, I wouldn't get into a cage with a lion either.   I've often wondered why we think we can successfully attack a vehicle that came from an obviously superior system, but I guess kneejerk reactions will prevail.  Personally, I'd rather take a chance and find out what they wanted before I tried to dissect them.  But I digress.

Reading is fundamental.  It really is.  If you have the ability to read you can learn just about anything., including how to make things.   You may not be able to do everything you read, but it stimulates the mind and enables you to imagine something similar or allows you to explore the world of another person.   The ability to read has taken me to countries I've never physically visited and met people I would never meet on the street. 

In fourth grade it was a requirement to learn how to use the school library.  The Dewey Decimal system was explained and it was suggested that successful book reports and essays could be done with what was available if one was willing to use the service.  I preferred the base library because it was bigger and had more fiction available.  It as where I hid out after being kicked out of Sunday School for asking what they determined to be a heretical question (I didn't think that if you lived off of Patagonia (it was the sixties)and had never seen a white man or heard of the Bible that God would send you to hell because you hadn't heard of Jesus Christ) and while I waited for church to start so I could be honest and tell my dad I went to church every Sunday.

As I grew older (twenties) I started buying books.  By the time I had moved away from the San Fernando Valley, Crown Books had expanded its scifi section in three different stores.  For really interesting books I went to Change of Hobbit in Santa Monica (not there any more) and that unfortunate trend is continuing in both schools and state budgets.

Having access to city libraries as schools cut back on everything that makes learning interesting is crucial for inner city and rural children to expand their imagination, to teach them that Wikipedia isn't everything and being able to feel a book in your hands and have your eyes track the words and paragraphs helps to reinforce that more than one person has information on any given subject.  It shows them a future that is possible and that they can be a part of it. It can help make up for the deficiencies in the school system.

As much as I love the internet, and I do, I also belong to the local library and check out books for when I don't want to watch a movie, I want to have quiet time, don't want to type and still be entertained.  If Abraham Lincoln thought reading was so important that he was willing to do it by firelight, we should be expanding access for our kids to more authors, more information and let's face it, more organization.  Numbers or letters, they both work at the library.

Goodbye Mr. Updike, I wasn't one of your faithful readers but you gave so much to others that the literary world will definitely miss you.  Thank you for your contributions and the pleasure your brought to so many.

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1055 Dead, The Majority Were Not Soldiers

I am not an anti-Semite.  Some of my best friends are Jewish, (I've always wanted to use some line just like that), but what I am is anti war.  I don't care  how you dress it up, when you invade another country and the kill rate is 40% women and children as collateral damage, that's not antisemitism and it certainly isn't pikuach nefesh, that's an attempt at genocide.  White phosphorus bombs?  After the napalm photo from Vietnam there is no excuse for using such weapons.  Against any one, including the UN.  But the part in the Bible about turning the other cheek must be in the New Testament and only apply to people who really believe in Jesus' teachings.  Wars don't demonstrate who's right or wrong, but who's left standing.  In other words, history is written by the winners.

Palestine had democratic elections as the world demanded and they mistakenly elected a party the powers that rule the world didn't approve of, therefore that party isn't legitimate and it's okay to indiscriminately kill people until they change their evil ways.  Too bad the world didn't use that same logic against, Bush, Mugabe or Chavez. Chavez at the moment is relatively insulated against being invaded by the US in its pursuit for oil so the rich don't have to change their lifestyle.  And to Elizabeth Wurtzel, all I have to say is waah, waah, waah.  You can't dress up killing civilians on a regular basis and not be compared to a regime that did the same.  Behave like an advanced human instead of an angry monkey and maybe "normal" people might think you have a valid point.

But to communicate with anyone I think of as right-minded (and left-leaning) in any other part of the world is to experience the purest antisemitism since the Nazi era. In fact, in Europe right now, it is de rigueur to liken the current regime in Israel with the Nazi party, and to view the experience of the Palestinians as a form of ethnic cleansing. Hamas and Hezbollah are thought by the French and British to be social welfare organizations, and Israel is viewed as a terrorist state. Here, we honor the linguistic discoveries of Noam Chomsky and otherwise experience him as a quaintly brilliant crank, but in the bookstores in London there are entire sections devoted to his political thought – and he is read as if the distinctions between Leninist and Trotskyite philosophy had genuine consequence in today's world.

And if you don't want to go to Europe because of the negative feelings towards Americans since the Iraq war, imagine how angry Europeans are right now with this even larger injustice building in their back yard.  Perhaps, just maybe, God should have chosen the Jewish homeland and not some politicians from Great Britain and the United States who didn't think about the results of displacing the Palestinians who had lived there for thousands of years since God kicked the Jewish people out the last time for disrespecting his rules. Or whatever reason God determined they should wander homeless.

Any way you look at it, killing children only breeds more generational hatred and hasn't there been enough of that in the world?  And please tell me that the goal was not to have Osama been Forgotten to declare a holy war over Gaza.  2012 will be here soon enough.

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Soup Lines, Bread Lines, Unemployment Lines

What a Corker!  And the right hand said to the left hand "I don't need your help to jerk myself off, I'm going to show you how to be a fiscal conservative again.  We won't even need tissue paper."  Meanwhile, what's left of the American Automobile industry is flushed down the toilet.  And why don't the Republicans in Congress care?  That's way too easy to answer.

Because they have a salary that's way too high for the job they aren't even trying to accomplish; they have health care for when their ulcers (that they might not be reelected or any other physical problems that affect "normal" people and then the taxpayer so nicely pays it for them without ever seeing a bill to make sure they aren't being overcharged!) goes bad; because they really don't realize that it is their constituents who are the ones in major financial trouble (and who gives a flying fig about them since most of the Senators aren't up for election for the next two to four years and they know American memories are short, name the last 10 Presidents in under ten seconds) and they know that after the inauguration they will still be able to go on a junket vacation on the taxpayers few remaining dimes.  Because we all know that the solution to this problem is to cut back everyone's wages and eliminate all pensions except for those in government and the problem will magically solve itself using the free market system.  Of stupidity.  Whatever happened to making government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub?  Or did Katrina show that little plan wasn't going to work?

As I sit here and watch the country I was willing to bleed and die for, I wonder why it took me so long to realize that my country truly is apple shaped and that we are well on our way to a fatal heart attack or stroke.  Then I realized that the people currently in power think all those stories about soup lines (great link with pictures and everything!) and The Grapes of Wrath were just brilliant works of fiction to make the have nots not feel so alone and that it really was never that bad, will never be that bad and it was probably made up in the first place to give the photographers something to do.  Methinks that sometime soon the crew without a clue will finally realize what the Second Amendment was really about...and that it had nothing to do with owning guns just because you wanted to.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It has everything to do with making sure that once again the have mores will understand that the have nots have had about as much not as they can take and still call themselves men and women instead of slaves.  We may not have taxation without representation, but we certainly have had representation without repercussions to the perpetrators of our current mess.

If we all work together, we just might get both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights back into the positions of authority that they held for hundreds of years before this bunch of bozos decided to drive the Escalade over the Grand Canyon to see if it could fly.

Without wings, a pilot or parachute for anyone other than the owners.

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They Can't Be Serious

Honestly, every time I think the Bush regime has done as much damage as it's going to, more atrocities are revealed.  As a veteran myself, I have taken special interest in how active military and veterans are being treated by the crew without a clue.  When I first read the story of soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan being denied benefits because their injuries were determined not to be combat related, I had to hold my head tight to keep it from exploding.  Since when is being injured in a land mine explosion or mortars pelting the area you are stationed in, considered not to be combat related?  This last March would be the answer.  Because everybody knows those kinds of injuries happen at home all the time.  Once again the people who have paid the the most are the ones that are getting screwed.

And if that wasn't enough to raise my blood pressure, the GAO has found that Bush loyalists were once again cooking the books to make themselves look better.  Competitive outsourcing is a bad policy that has had real world ramifications and demeans the people who have done the job successfully for many years.  What's really interesting is that all of the people let go were African American.  Color me not surprised.

Good grief!  Let the kids have a little fun, they're in kindergarten and this is their introduction to US history.  They will grow up soon enough and discover that most o fwhat they have been taught is a lie, why hurry the process?  If they can't dress up as Pilgrims and Indians, dressing up as angels and a little drummer boy next month are going to be out of the question.

Did you know that women are allowed to drive in Iran?  They can even have their own business as taxi drivers.  Now that Iraq has been reduced to a fundamentalist prison, at least it is from a woman's point of view,  Iran has more democratic freedoms than other Muslim countries.  Imagine that.

More banks are failing and the ranks of the destitute are growing quickly.  Destitute is worse than poor. You can be poor and still have a leaky roof over your head, when you are destitute you have nothing.  Which is what happens when you lose your job, house and self respect.  Food stamps only help if you have a place to store and cook the food and while a family of four making less than $21,000 is considered to be below the poverty level, it's still more money than being unemployed and homeless.

Unfortunately, I know the problem a little too well.  Fortunately, my landlord has relented for the moment and has agreed to let us stay until February.  Work Comp has made me an offer, albeit a very small one, so mom and I will have a roof over our heads for a few more months and I'm trying to find a regular job.  Mom really can't be left alone for very long, she does weird things and doesn't remember doing them and now adult protective services wants her watched at all times, so I would prefer to work from home.  Unfortunately all those offers have turned out to be scams. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

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Tales Of Woe

My sentiments exactly.  When I saw the article yesterday about Michelle Obama being only interested in getting her kids settled and that she isn't going to have a seat at the decision table, I thought, "wow, she has had to give up everything that made her who she is and settle for picking the drapes."  She isn't an extension of her husband, she is a person in her own right.  If she had wanted to be a stay at home mom, she would have done it earlier in her career.  And as one commenter pointed out, if Hillary had been elected what role would Bill be playing right now?  It certainly wouldn't be as the interior decorator, clothes horse or chief babysitter.  America is so far behind the times when it comes to gender equality that I doubt we will ever catch up to the rest of the world.

Dumb-dee-dumb dumb.   To say they weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer is putting it mildly.  I'm sure the KKK would like to disavow all knowledge.

I'm desperately looking for a place I can afford here in San Jose and having no luck at all.  99% of the ads for places under a thousand dollars have been either preforeclosure homes or a variation of this letter.

It is a great pleasure that to you are interested in my Place.Thanks for your email and it is my gladness to hearing you I am a Single Christain Father, With no kid, My Wife, Pass by Last 4 Month  (got dead). Due to the Fatal Accident we Had she got Dead, and I got Dislocation on my Legs and Hand, My name is Pastor Rev Benard Glott The Owner of the 2 bedroom home and its located @ 3665 Benton Street, Santa Clara, CA 95051 I am presently in West Africa due to my transfer that makes me leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as I am not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, i am here in west Africa, My new house and put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the apartment  for, since i am not residing there for now.I left behind some Facilities and electonics which include the rent, and a DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, arefrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven, microwave,dishwasher and washing machine, My Computer Connected with Internet Acess Also the keys to the House are right here with me, and the lease document. Which i can send to you after all necessary agreement has be accepted. Also i will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue ,but your absolute maintenance of my apartment is most important thing so will want you to get back to me with the Application form below.

And here is one of the many variations.

We are so much excited. My name is Jeff Garza the owner of the apartment and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my wife and little daughter to leave the apartment and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it while we are not at the state as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, we are here in West Africa, our new house and put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the apartment for, since i am not residing there for now. I left behind some Facilities and electonics which include the rent, DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, refrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine, my computer connected with Internet access also the keys and document of the apartment are right here with us in West Africa, and the lease document. Which i can send to you after all necessary agreement has been accepted. Also i will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue, hope you are okay with the price of $699 per month including utilities like water, gas, heat laundry facilities, air condition and so on, but your absolute maintenance of my apartment is most important thing, if you are really interested in renting this apartment get back to me so that i can forward you an application form for you to fill so that i can start all necesary arrangement asap.  Here is the apartment address :   347 Massol Ave, Los Gatos, CA 95030, USA   ..... Pls note that you will be viewing the apartment from outside and won't be able to inspect because the keys and document to the apartment are with me here in africa and. It is located on a cool, quiet and safe neighbourhood.

I've received about fifteen of these responses so far.  Meanwhile, my landlord is taking me to court and that will prevent me from renting anywhere else in the future.  I don't have a clue as to what to do.  The effects of moving on mom will be bad enough, moving her to another state would be disastrous besides being fiscally impossible  Her doctor doesn't think she should go into a care facility yet and adult protective services told me not to move her until we have a solid place to stay.  For the first time in my life I am having anxiety attacks and they are as far from fun as you can get.  I know that I'm hyperventilating and that lack of oxygen is what causes my vision to go dark, but it is really hard to get my breathing to slow down when my heart is beating abnormally fast.  All I can say is that this situation sucks and I need help.

Oh yeah, and now my internet connection is slower than dial up (ten minutes to load a page, the signal keeps dropping) and I can't get anything done.  I can hardly wait for the next shoe to drop.

BBB


Update:  The manager came over and made me an offer to extend the time until February 15th, as long as I can come up with a $1000 in three days.  I'm thinking of selling my car, but then I wouldn't be able to get to work at all the places I have to be since the bus service isn't all that great.  And certainly not within the time frame that my job requires.  But I'll do it in order to stay here for a few more months and keep a roof over mom's head.  They say that when one door closes another opens.  Unfortunately I think I'm stuck in a real world variation of Cube.

Wake And Bake

Perhaps the police and the District Attorney's office should spend more time and effort on capturing thieves, rapists and murderers instead of potheads, prostitutes and protesters.  Wasting time and dwindling resources to prosecute victimless crimes trivializes the justice system and lets criminals of greater crimes remain at large because they have better legal representation.  Sentencing a person to jail for three to five years for possession of pot while allowing white collar criminals who bilked millions out of their savings to go free is stupid at best and criminal at worst.  Prisons are so overcrowded that rapists and murderers are allowed to go free so there can be room for people convicted of possession is a miscarriage of justice and shows a disturbing sense of priorities.  One is not soft on crime if a pot smoker is left alone, one is soft on crime when a rapist is allowed to go free so you can incarcerate the pot smoker.

Hung out with the BARBarians on Thursday night for a post victory celebration and several thoughts struck me.  First of all, very few people showed up.  I guess everyone thinks their job is done.  It isn't.  Obama deserves the same scrutiny that we gave Bush, otherwise we are the hypocrites that we accused the hardly ever right of being.

Second, Generik was surprised that I wasn't as emotionally affected by Obama's win and I never got a chance to tell him why.  Yes I'm black, but I'm also a woman and I can honestly say that being female has held me back more often than my skin color.  If Obama had been a woman, I would still be walking around with a smile and my head held high.  As it is, I don't see that things are going to change much under an Obama administration since he has very few women in his inner circle and doesn't seem inclined to step out of his comfort zone.  Unfortunately this is typical of many black men.  Women are rarely seen as equals and society will continue to reflect that unless Obama makes the same effort that Bill Clinton did to put women into decision making roles in his cabinet.  Hopefully I'm wrong but past experience has shown that politics at the top is a major boy's club.

It's rained a little bit and the weather is chilly (for California), so tonight's dinner is going to be Chicken and Dumplings with carrots, onions, rutabaga and turnip.  I can hardly wait.  And since I just typed that, the sun has decided to make a brief appearance and play peekaboo with the clouds.  Not changing my mind, my taste buds are all set for the dumplings and gravy.  Yum!

BBB